354 General History of Europe 601. Charles dissolves Parliament (1629) and determines to rule by himself. This fear of a return to Roman Catholicism served to widen the breach between Charles and the Commons. The Parliament of 1629, after a stormy session, was dissolved by the king, who determined to rule thereafter by himself. For eleven years no new Parliament was summoned. Charles was not well fitted by nature to run the government of England by himself. He had not the necessary tireless energy. Moreover, the methods resorted to by his ministers to raise money without recourse to Parliament rendered the king more and more unpopular and prepared the way for the triumphant return of Parliament. 602. The Different Sects of Protestants High Church and Low Church. In 1633 Charles made William Laud archbishop of Canterbury. The new archbishop ruled that every clergyman who obstinately refused to conform to the services of the State Church should be brought before the king's special Court of High Commission to be tried and, if convicted, to be deprived of his position. Laud's conduct was no doubt gratifying to the High Church party among the Protestants; that is, those who still clung to some of the ancient practices of the Roman Church, although they rejected the doctrine of the Mass and refused to regard the Pope as their head. The Low Church party, or Puritans, on the contrary, regarded Laud and his policy with aversion. While they did not urge the abolition of the bishops, they disliked all "superstitious usages," as they called the wearing of the sur- plice by the clergy, the use of the sign of the cross at baptism, the kneeling posture in partaking of the communion, and so forth. 603. The Independents. Moreover, there was an ever-increasing number of Separatists, or Independents. These rejected both the organization of the Church of England and that of the Presby- terians and desired that each religious community should or- ganize itself independently. The government had forbidden these Separatists to hold their little meetings, which they called con- venticles, and about 1600 some of them fled to Holland.
